Drug discovery is an expensive and time consuming process involving many different steps. The drug discovery process involves identifying potential compounds of desired effects, and then proceeds to further steps of drug design. Hundreds of thousands of chemical compounds and molecules, that are readily available at a screening facility, are tested on micro-assays using a biological target. After an incubation time, measurements are taken, and the compounds that absorbs, inhibit, stimulate, or react with the target are labeled as active.
High Throughput Screening (HTS) is a method often used in drug discovery to identify active compounds which react in a specified manner. HTS may be a first stage for drug design, and is widely used for its ability to scan a large number of compounds in a relatively short period of time. However, due to the need to screen thousands of compounds, this method is inefficient and expensive both in terms of time and overall cost.
With the ability to rapidly screen diverse compounds (such as small molecules or siRNAs) to identify active compounds, HTS has led to a substantial increase in the rate of data generated from assays of screened compounds. As a result of the increased amount of data, it may be difficult to glean biochemical significance from any particular portion of the data.